Journal

After thirteen years making handmade leather goods, here’s why Last Exit still builds with Horween Dublin and full-grain leather—and what makes leather age beautifully.

I'm constantly on the receiving end of ideas - from wherever they come into being: the beyond, "the Muse," as Steven Pressfield calls it. Others talk of harnessing their inspiration from some "astral plane" - but the premise is the same. We are the conduit for new and fresh ideas. Capturing...

These Pocket Dump videos have become a bit of a "thing" on YouTube - and I thought I'd get in on the showcase of what makes the EDC grade for me in the year 2025.  It's a bit wider focus than just the pockets - this is really what I'm...

One of the most important values I hold dear is the ability to adapt to changing conditions around me. And paramount to that is having access to the right tools and materials to figure myself out of any binds.

Well, maybe not a movie ... but a YouTube video where we dig into some decision making metrics for how we spend our hard-earned dollars and change.

We recently updated one of our first designs from our founding in 2012: the Leather Dopp Kit. This unique full-grain leather travel kit is ready for any journey, near or far.

Not long ago, I found the first finished piece that I ever created out of leather in the bottom of a drawer: a guitar pick keychain. It certainly was not pretty ... follow along as I build a new 2022 take on it, from design to finish, to celebrate our 10th anniversary!

I never tire of seeing our customers come by to show off their wallets: a year, two, or nine years into its deployment. The commonality is the incredible patina that forms with time - but each serves as a scroll of the places it goes with its owner. Age tells a story.

Machine stitching our wallets en masse would certainly be a much more time and cost-efficient manner to bring our products to market, but that's not our style. Delve into the process we go through on each and every wallet we make for our customers: hand-stitched, one at a time. 

Get to know the form and function of the San Juan Wallet with a little more dimension in our video series highlighting some of our favorite Last Exit Goods products.

Get to know the form and function of the Animas Wallet with a little more dimension in our video series highlighting some of our favorite Last Exit Goods products.

We take the responsibility of holding up your pants very seriously. Since we make our belts to order, one at a time - and so we get you the right sized belt - we've got a little how-to tutorial video for you with some simple steps. You'll need: a measuring...

I don't know who to credit this to, but I heard a different metric for consumerism a while ago that I thought was interesting: cost per use.

 

The idea, of course, is that hopefully there's a linear correlation with value and length of use. Can you buy something cheap from the internet and have it still last a long time? Or do you derive enjoyment from quality items, even for things you only use or wear a few times? 

My family has been firmly rooted in Texas since pretty much forever. Dad was born on Galveston Island, raised in Houston; Mom also a Houstonian since day one. My 92-year-old grandmother is still the center of our Texas family there in Houston, now with four generations of our greater family surrounding...

It was a New York City subway pickpocket circa 2000 to whom I owe my minimalist tendencies. Somewhere between Union Square and First Avenue on the L train, my overstuffed George Costanza bi-fold found its way out of my back pocket for ever more. As a newbie to that fabled...

While the world grows increasingly complicated, we have become the culture of the disposable good and the cost-saving big box store...